A priest in St. Petersburg suffered a stroke after being arrested and detained for planning a memorial service for late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Russia. The priest, who’s now hospitalized, was detained close to his residence as he headed to a memorial to victims of Soviet political repression.
Grigory Michnov-Vaitenko, the detained priest recognized by his spouse on Fb, was on his method to the Solovetsky Stone in St. Petersburg when he was detained and brought into custody on Saturday, The Moscow Instances reported.
breaking:
Russian police arrested priest Grigory Michnov-Vaitenka after he introduced that he would maintain a public memorial service for Alexei Navalny right now in St. Petersburg. pic.twitter.com/wIUcqYwsvt
— Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) February 17, 2024
His well being deteriorated at police station No. 43, which led to his hospitalization within the intensive care unit with stroke signs, in keeping with Boris Vishnevsky and Lev Shlosberg, opposition MPs from St. Petersburg and Pskov.
The detention got here shortly after Russian authorities introduced Navalny's dying, prompting large-scale memorials throughout Russia, with supporters inserting flowers and photographs at memorials.
Regardless of a deliberate service for Navalny, the Russian Orthodox Church has distanced itself from Michnov-Vaitenka, saying he’s not a priest of their church, and suggested the general public to disregard his statements.
The incident coincides with the detention of greater than 170 individuals at Navalny memorials throughout the nation, a response to Russian police warnings in opposition to comparable rallies, The Moscow Instances reported.
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence, has been a vocal critic of the Kremlin, resulting in his imprisonment and subsequent crackdown on supporters and organizations that Russian authorities have labeled “extremist”.
On Sunday, information emerged that Navalny's physique had been present in an Arctic morgue after his mom was unable to find his physique on Saturday on the Salechard District Medical Hospital, the place his physique was reported to have initially been taken, The Telegraph reported.
His physique confirmed indicators of bruises on his head and chest when it was taken to Salekhard Hospital, in keeping with an unnamed paramedic interviewed by the exile newspaper Novaya Gazeta. He added that such accidents may very well be from a seizure.
“One goes into convulsions, tries to carry it again, and bruises seem. Additionally they mentioned he additionally had a bruise on his chest. Which means they had been nonetheless attempting to resuscitate him and he died almost certainly from a cardiac arrest,” the paramedic mentioned, in keeping with Novaya Gazeta.
Russian jail officers claimed Navalny died on Friday after a stroll on the IK-3 jail camp within the Russian Arctic. Nonetheless, Navalny's colleagues from the Endowment Fund in opposition to Corruption accused the Russian authorities of a cover-up.
Navalny's dying drew reactions from numerous quarters and highlighted his distinguished function within the opposition to Putin's regime.
In his op-ed for The Spectator, Owen Matthews recalled Navalny's impression, describing him as a determine of bravery and defiance in opposition to corruption and authoritarianism in Russia.
Navalny's efforts to advertise transparency and problem the ruling social gathering had been mirrored in his surviving a 2020 poisoning try attributed to the Federal Safety Service, Matthews famous, including that regardless of the dangers, Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, resulting in his imprisonment and has been broadly debated by each its supporters and critics.
“The information (but to be independently confirmed) that he died in jail got here as a bodily blow right now – sickening but in addition tragically unsurprising,” Matthews wrote. “Navalny's rampant ardour, his intelligence and his refusal to compromise with Putin's regime have made him a colossus in a world of opposition politicians full of ethical dwarfs. The Soviet Communist Social gathering as soon as claimed to be the “intelligence, honor and conscience” of the Russian individuals. However that title rightly belongs to Navalny, whose life and profession have been dwelling proof that Putin has not but utterly extinguished Russia's spirit of freedom and defiance, even within the face of terrifying odds.
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